Team Cook's Apple 10 Years... Surpassed Jobs

10th Anniversary of CEO Appointment on the 24th (Local Time)
First US Company to Surpass $2 Trillion Market Cap
Annual Revenue Doubled Compared to 10 Years Ago
Dispelling Concerns Over Jobs' Absence

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), marked his 10th anniversary in office on the 24th (local time). When Steve Jobs passed away from pancreatic cancer and Cook took over the baton, even Apple devotees worried about the company’s future. However, Cook proved himself with numbers. Some even say that in terms of finance and management, Cook has already surpassed Jobs.

On the 24th (local time), major foreign media including The Economist focused on the achievements Tim Cook has made as Apple’s CEO on his 10th anniversary.

The most striking achievement is the management performance proven by numbers. Over the past 10 years under Cook’s leadership, Apple became the first American company to surpass a market capitalization of $2 trillion. When Cook became CEO, Apple’s market cap was $349 billion, but it has now grown more than sevenfold to exceed $2.5 trillion.

According to The Economist’s tally, Cook increased Apple’s market cap by an average of $210.3 billion (approximately 245 trillion KRW) annually over 10 years. This figure far surpasses Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s average annual increase of $60 billion and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s $76.8 billion.

Annual revenue also more than doubled from $108 billion 10 years ago to $274 billion currently. Net profit also more than doubled to $57 billion compared to the Jobs era, making Apple the most profitable company in the world.

CNBC predicted, “Apple’s market capitalization could reach $3 trillion as early as next year (2022).”

Apple’s workforce has also grown significantly over the past decade. When Cook took office, Apple had 60,400 full-time employees, but as of last fall, the number of Apple employees was counted at 147,000.

Tim Cook has not only driven Apple’s quantitative growth but also emphasized corporate social responsibility, enhancing the brand value. The Economist described Cook as “the first CEO of a company the size of Apple to declare that it must fulfill its responsibilities to humanity and the environment.”

As Apple has experienced remarkable growth under Cook’s leadership, the challenges ahead are not insignificant. High dependence on China is a representative issue. To reduce demand fluctuation risks, Apple follows a fabless management principle instead of establishing its own factories, but most fabless factories are located in China. Antitrust issues such as sales methods in the app market are also important challenges. Apple forces all companies listed on its App Store to use in-app payments, collecting a 30% commission through this system. However, recently, there has been a growing sentiment that Apple’s payment method is unfair. Discovering next-generation growth engines is also one of the challenges facing CEO Cook.

CNBC pointed out, “Apple is developing technology to enter the healthcare sector, but so far, it has not introduced any services other than the Apple Watch.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.